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I have always been fascinated by research labs, especially those tied to major universities. These are the true leaders of innovation and invention and at the very top of the PCB industry. So, when I met Allen Keeney, chief engineer of the Advanced Electrical Fabrication Group at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, I jumped at the chance to talk with him. You will enjoy this look at another facet of our PCB industry.
Gardien Vice President Todd Kolmodin talks about test and inspection market drivers from his perspective as a test service provider. Andy Shaughnessy and Happy Holden go down the “microvia rabbit hole” with Todd, as well as explore how OEM design requirements are driving test and inspection functionality and processes. When board layer counts and feature densities force longer test times, the tradeoffs to profitability for manufacturers become time and accuracy. Minimizing time while maximizing accuracy calls for new methods, which Kolmodin explains.
Shall we talk about the epitome of a “woulda, shoulda, coulda” story? This is the real deal. "Built To Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust" takes us on a fascinating reverse fortune...
Will the U.S. gain back significant share of global chip manufacturing or continue to decline and become less relevant in this critical area? Back in 1990, the U.S. dominated the world in its use of chips, with about 40% of the total...
The moment will come when some of you readers will advance from interest to complete involvement with the technology. This will be a fun ride as you will experience first-hand the concepts seen so far in this column. However, we all...
The ENIG specification 4552 was issued in 2002. Since then, it has gone through a series of amendments and revisions in an attempt to meet the everchanging industry requirements. It started as a thickness specification that did not...
